Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 2.djvu/292

248 western, beyond the Calle Plateros, or street of the silversmiths, are protected by a broad and massive corridor or portico, called the portales, in which the traveller will constantly find crowds of hawkers, pedlars, shopmen, letter writers, clothiers, fruit sellers, liquor venders, crockery dealers and book hucksters. A few squares west of the plaza, is situated the magnificent palace of the Mineria, or School of Mines, one of the most elegant edifices in the capital.

In noticing the general splendour and luxury of ecclesiastical architecture in Mexico we should not omit to mention particularly the beautiful convent of La Merced, a view of whose elegant interior court and corridor is presented in the opposite plate. Gloomier recollections, however, are conjured up from the past by beholding the church of San Domingo and the neighboring inquisition, which was the prison and the place of torture to so many unfortunate victims during the viceroyal government of New Spain.

It is, in the centre or heart of the city, that all the characteristic habits and costumes of the people may be most readily observed. The great body of the crowd is, of course, composed of the common classes—the males in their shirts and trowsers with a blanket thrown